Category: 1st and 2nd Kings-BibleTrekToday
Trek through 1st and 2nd Kings
Glory in the Temple!
Scripture Reading for April 3: 1st Kings 5-8
Solomon had heard God’s decree that he would build the house where God’s Name would reside among His people. He had a vision and at God’s invitation had asked Him for wisdom. He knew of the desire of his father David and willingly offered himself to the Lord to build this “House”. (1st Kings 5:5)
In building the temple, Solomon employed many people. Some came from lands outside Israel. Solomon made covenants with many nations and the nations were drawn to Israel during this time of peace. The temple was made of stone, cedar and pine wood, and precious metals. Craftsmen worked off site on the stones so that the temple could be assembled without saws, chisels or hammers used on the site. (1st Kings 6:7) The temple took seven years to construct with thousands of workers meticulously adding every piece and detail in precise order and design. (1st Kings 6:38)
When the temple was completed, the priests carried the Ark into the Holy of Holies and then withdrew. None could stand as the Presence of God in the cloud of Glory filled the temple. (1st Kings 8:6-11) Solomon declared a blessing and thanked God for His faithfulness! Solomon then knelt down, raised his hands toward heaven, and prayed a magnificent prayer of dedication! In this prayer are eight petitions of God to “hear from heaven” when His people call upon Him for help. The central focus was forgiveness! All of man’s troubles are caused by sin, either against God or man made in God’s image. The consequences of sin bring famine, disease, plague, war, and death. As God’s people cry out, God’s glory is that He will hear and forgive and act to bring healing and restoration!
Solomon also prayed for the foreigner and those drawn to the temple from other lands and peoples. Solomon asked God to hear their prayer as well so all peoples of the earth might know His Great Name and fear the Lord! (1st Kings 8:41-43, 60) This prayer reminds us of Jesus sending his followers into all the world to make disciples of all nations! His house would be a house of prayer for all nations! (Mark 11:17) Examine your heart today as the temple of God. Would your house be a house of prayer for all?
Asking for wisdom!
Scripture Reading for April 2: 1st Kings1-4
1 Kings 3:3 “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.” . . vs. 5-6 “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before You in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you.” . .vs 9 “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern Your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this Your great people?”
Newly crowned King Solomon had an encounter with the Lord. He had gone to Gibeon to sacrifice to the Lord and that day offered a thousand burnt offerings! Extravagant worship marked the life of this newly anointed king! That night as Solomon lay asleep, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1st Kings 3:4-5) Solomon first thanked the Lord for his kindness to his father David in placing him on the throne. Then he confessed his need for God’s help in ruling His people, asking for a discerning heart and wisdom to rule wisely. (1st Kings 3:7-9)
This pleased the Lord! Solomon was granted what he asked for and also given by grace what he did not ask for! God gave him riches and honor so that there would be no equal among kings of that time. (1st Kings 3:10-14) Jesus Christ has been made to us wisdom from God! (1st Corinthians 1:30) We are told that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God for it and He will give us liberally! James 1:5-7) Praise the Lord!
In considering Solomon’s walk with the Lord, how would God say that you felt toward Him? How might God describe your walk with Him? How are you at asking God for what you want or need?
Declare God’s faithfulness!
Scripture reading for March 6: Joshua 18-21
“So the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them, the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” (Joshua 21:43-45)
Our family has been through a number of trials during our journey here on earth. When we farmed, we experienced a severe drought in 1974 and harvested very little. But God brought us through! We had a fire in 1975 that destroyed a large hog building and a large number of animals. It was the only building not listed on the insurance policy, but God brought us through again! In 1976 a tornado struck our farm. destroying barns, cattle sheds, machine sheds and trees on both sides of our house. We all survived and God took us through! In 1981 a severe economic crisis hit agriculture. Many farmers lost their farms and we were deeply in debt. God showed us a plan and brought us through again! In 2001, we were 2 miles from the center of a 6.9 earthquake that shook our house, church and city in Olympia, Washington. God brought us through again! I could go on, but the point is that God is faithful!
Joshua was dividing the land because the war to possess the land of Canaan was essentially over. (Joshua 18:2) Joshua followed God’s instructions for seven years. Not one enemy could stand up against them when they were obedient! Not one promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ever failed!
Are you currently walking with Jesus through the land of His promises? Have you listened to His plan for giving you victory? What’s stopping you from declaring His promises true in your life and situation?
“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as He has promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through his servant Moses.” 1st Kings 8:56
Honoring Christ’s holiness to harvest!
Scripture reading for October 14th: 2nd Kings 24-25, 2nd Chronicles 36, Psalm 126, 1st Peter 3
1st Peter 3: 13-17 “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you: Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
Peter again returns to the theme of suffering for righteousness and the blessing that it can bring. When we suffer in honor of Christ, not reviling those causing the suffering or cursing and complaining, God is glorified and looks graciously upon us. He opens hearts and often gives those suffering an opportunity to share the reason for their hope and good attitudes. They are to be ready to do that and when that opportunity comes, use gentleness and reverence and respect. God may bring a harvest of souls from your honoring Christ, who also suffered unjustly to bring souls to glory.
Psalm 126:5-6 “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You again for encouraging Your people to honor Christ even by suffering unjustly at the hands of those who don’t know You or despise Your Word. Use us to show compassion to those despising and mocking Your Word and messengers. Help me to always be ready with an answer and to show gentleness and respect to all. May Your remedy, Jesus Christ be applied to each heart.
2nd Chronicles 36:15-16 “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and His dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His Words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, until there was no remedy.”
Swallowed up by Life!
Scripture reading for September 22nd: 2nd Kings 22-23, Psalm 73, 2nd Corinthians 5
2nd Corinthians 5: 1-6 “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He Who has prepared us for this very thing is God, Who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
Paul elaborated further on his faith in the resurrection of the dead. His firm belief was that even if our mortal body is destroyed, believers have a guarantee through the Gift of the Holy Spirit that they will receive a new resurrection body that will live forever in the presence of God. It will not be temporary like the “tent” of our body. It will be a “building”, something eternal. While we wait for this promise, we may groan and suffer from persecution, aging, or attacks of Satan. But focus on what is ahead and surely coming with take us through to receive our promised inheritance! God is with us and guiding us to glory.
Psalm 73:23-24 “Nevertheless, I am continually with You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the Gift of Your Holy Spirit to live in me and guide me with Your counsel and prepare me for glory eternal! Your plans for me are amazing and a pure gift of grace in that I deserve the opposite. I long for the day when these promises become sight and I receive the ‘building’ You have prepared for me and I am swallowed, not by the grave, but by Life eternal in Your presence!
2nd Kings 23:25 “Before him (King Josiah) there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”
Far-exceeding glory!
Scripture reading for September 20th: 2nd Kings 21, 2nd Chronicles 33, Psalm 71, 2nd Corinthians 3
2nd Corinthians 3:7-12 “Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. . .”
Paul explained to the believers in Corinth the amazing truths concerning the glory of the ministry of righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ. Under the old covenant, the Law, the glory on Moses’ face after meeting with God was fading away and Moses used a veil to shield the people from that fading glory. The Law could only reveal sin and bring condemnation before God. Its glory was fading because it was temporary until Christ was revealed and the New Covenant of righteousness by faith. Paul explained that this Covenant comes with far-exceeding glory that instead of fading away grows ever brighter in intensity on those following Christ by faith! Amen!
Psalm 71:14-16 “But I will hope continually and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth will tell of Your righteous acts, of Your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come, I will remind them of Your righteousness, Yours alone.”
Prayer: Holy Father, You alone are God and Your amazing mercy to forgive us all our sins and wickedness and to give us Your gift of righteousness is worthy of all praise. Your promise of ever-increasing and far-exceeding glory to those who humbly follow Jesus stretches my mind! I vow with the psalmist, “I will praise You yet more and more!”
2nd Chronicles 33:12-13 “And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to Him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him back again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”
Healthy self-examination!
Scripture reading for September 8th: 2nd Kings 20, Isaiah 38-40, Psalm 68, 1st Corinthians 11
1st Corinthians 11: 27-33 “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another–. .”
Paul gave some strict warnings to believers in the partaking together with one another of the Lord’s supper, Holy Communion. Paul taught that it was vitally important that each person examine his own heart and life and repent of any offenses or known sins before partaking. Failure to do this could result in serious consequences. Guilt concerning the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ would come upon those partaking in an ‘unworthy’ manner. Discerning the body of Christ could refer to the bread and remembrance of Christ’s body broken for us for our healing and deliverance from sin. It could also refer to failure to recognize our need to be right with others in Christ’s body, the Church. Healthy self-examination can keep us from sickness and even death from unworthy hearts before the sacrament.
Isaiah 40:31 “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew the strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Prayer: Father God, help me today and each day to examine my own heart and life and discern in a worthy manner the Body of Christ, broken for me. I want to be healthy and fully live for You. You are the One God Who alone is my Salvation and Who alone has delivered me from death and renews my strength each day. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I might proclaim the mercy of Your Body and Blood.
Psalm 68:19-20 “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. (Selah) (Pause and think about that.) Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.”
Serving Christ as His ‘bondservant’!
Scripture reading for September 2nd: 2nd Chronicles 28, 2nd Kings 17, Psalm 66, 1st Corinthians 7
1st Corinthians 7:17-23 “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price, do not become bondservants of men.”
When we come to Christ Jesus and are born again, our lives are changed from slave of sin to free-man in Christ. We are redeemed from slavery and are now free to love and serve God. How do we do that if we are in ‘slavery’ when we were called? This was a real question in the culture of first century Rome. Paul explained that we should remain in our positions and await God’s directions and opportunity. We should serve our masters as unto the Lord Himself to Whom we are now freely giving ourselves as bondslaves. Bondslaves voluntarily agreed to serve their masters for life. Christ purchased us with His own blood and we freely offer our bodies and hearts and souls to serve Him now and in eternity.
Psalm 66:11-12 “You brought us into the net; You laid a crushing burden on our backs; You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet You have brought us out into a place of abundance.”
Prayer: Father God, You have brought me and Your people to a place of abundance through the grace offered at the cost of Your Son’s sacrifice. Thank You for this simple instruction to continue serving You as a bondslave in whatever position or lot my life was when I heard and responded to Your call. Help me to humbly serve You each day, through the burdens, trials, water and fires of life. Blessed be Your Name!
2nd Kings 17:37-39 “And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that He wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the Lord your God, and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.”
Jesus offended the religious leaders
Scripture reading for August 15th: 2nd Kings 15-16, Matthew 21
Matthew 21:12-16 “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise’?”
After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem for His last Passover week, Jesus went to the temple and found corruption and idolatry there. Jesus drove out the money-changers and those selling sacrifices decreeing what Scripture had decreed: God’s House would be a ‘House of Prayer’. Those in charge of the temple were indignant! Their source of income was being disrupted by someone outside their ranks! Jesus then did many miracles of healing in the temple but these religious leaders were offended and sought to eliminate Jesus. Hardened hearts and offense go hand in hand and close the door to Heaven’s message of grace!
Matthew 21:43-44 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Prayer: Father God, Thank You for making Your House a House of prayer for all nations. Thank You for cleansing my heart from idolatry, and making me a person of prayer for all people. I desire to see fruit from Your indwelling me and my abiding in You. Use me to fulfill Your plans and purposes in my time and generation to pass the torch of faith to those still to come.
2nd Kings 16:2-5 “Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and the hills and under every green tree.”
The sign of the prophet Jonah!
Scripture reading for August 2nd: 2nd Kings 13-14; 2nd Chronicles 25; Psalm 53; Matthew 12
Matthew 12: 38-42 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” But He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
Jesus Christ had preached repentance to all He was sent to. He had demonstrated that He was the Son of God by signs and wonders and miracles. Still, the religious leaders of the Jews demanded more signs before they would respond. Jesus answered them by telling them the greatest “sign” that He was the Son of God–His resurrection from the grave after three days and nights. He explained that this coming event was patterned after an earlier event in the life of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was in rebellion to God’s instructions to preach to the people of Nineveh. God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah after he was thrown overboard. Jonah spent three days and nights in that fish before he was vomited out on Nineveh’s doorstep. He preached and they repented in a great revival.
Psalm 53:1-2 “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” they are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the preaching ministry of your prophets, apostles and of Jesus Christ, Himself. Forgive us for being like Jonah and running away from Your call to be witnesses of Your grace to those who are lost and mocking You. Help us to believe the greatest sign You have given us, the resurrection of Jesus Christ after three days. Empower me to preach this Good News to the lost today.
2nd Chronicles 25:14-16 “After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. Therefore the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?” But as he was speaking, the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! . .”